Climate science: Relationships with the land

For Janna Wale, science is everywhere.

As a Gitxsan woman from Gitanmaax First Nation in British Columbia’s northwestern Interior who is also Cree-Métis on her mother’s side, she understands and values the science inherent in monitoring the seasons and harvests of her people, in their ways of preserving salmon, and in their observations of and adaptations to changes in climate over generations.

At the same time, she’s an academic, with degrees in natural resources sciences and sustainability, credentials she earned from institutions with roots in colonialism while seeking to bridge the gap between Western and Indigenous knowledges and science.

“I think when people think about science, it's… white lab coats and old men wearing ties,” says Wale, who is the Indigenous research and partnerships lead with UVic-hosted Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS). “Not just classrooms are science, right? A lot of the science that I do, the science that I understand in practice, has come from spending time with my dad and learning about different processes that are happening on the Land, on the river just through his observation, and learning from other community members.

Science really is about observation. It's about being in connection with the land.”

—Janna Wale

‘It’s a generational fight and we need everybody’

Wale grew up in Gitanmaax but her father worked for BC Hydro, a job that required the family to move around the province. Still, every August, they would return home to harvest huckleberries and jar salmon.

“Salmon is huge for my family,” says Wale. “Being able to harvest salmon was really one of the ways that I was able to maintain my connection to my community and feel like I was Gitxsan. But as I got older, things changed. You started to hear more conversation around how things were happening at different times and our seasons were out of whack.”

Being born near the end of the Residential School era, she even noticed changes in the salmon harvest between her childhood and teen years.

It was that observation—that science—she brought with her when pursuing her Master of Science degree, where her thesis focused on climate resilience in Indigenous communities, showing how historic cycles of growing and harvesting have been disrupted and are even overlapping due to climate change.

Lael Parrott, a professor in sustainability and dean of the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science at UBC and who was Wale’s master’s supervisor, calls her work “a powerful illustration of how that seasonal cycle [has] shifted from the traditional timing to what's happening today.”

In addition to the scientific value of her former student’s work, Parrott also says she appreciates Wale’s “inner strength and her desire to include her Gitxsan ways of knowing and perspectives into her master’s thesis.”

In taking that path—and winning awards and recognition along the way—Wale has followed examples from within her community and her family.

She says her cousin Taylor Wale, just four years older, earned a master’s degree in salmon biology and has battled to work and be heard in the fisheries industry. Her auntie, Rhonda Maskiewich, has long worked in environmental assessment. “I’m watching how successful she's been, and breaking down these barriers, getting into these spaces and becoming extremely well respected by using her voice and having her opinion heard,” Wale says. 

She also admires her aunt’s efforts to create room for other under-represented voices in science and climate sectors.

“Something that I'm trying to do in my work is just make space for people who will be coming in after me,” she says, “and to understand that this is a generational thing, especially within climate change.

“It's a generational fight and we need everybody.”

Telling the story of Indigenous science

Brett Huson, whose Indigenous name is Hetxw’ms Gyetxw, not only agrees with Wale about the need to make space but has partnered with and mentored her. Also a member of the Gitxsan Nation, he is the founder and president of Aluu’taa, an Indigenous research and research support hub based in Winnipeg.

When he was starting out, he says he had support from his family and community “but it's not the same as non-Indigenous people. They have so much more access to a lot more opportunities.”

“She's got a lot of amazing ideas that I think need to be out there. We need to engage more broadly—not just within the realm of Indigenous Knowledges but in how they can be applied to benefit all communities, not just First Nations.”

Huson, who co-authored with Wale the report From Risk to Resilience: Indigenous Alternatives to Climate Risk Assessment in Canada for the Yellowhead Institute, sees the key as building bridges between knowledges, saying, “I think a lot of it is really just creating the material—the reports, the papers, the content—that people need to see that paints the narrative and tells the story, to show that the way that we know the world is scientific.

You can't have sophisticated civilizations existing in one place for tens of thousands of years without the capacity for this type of knowledge and this way of knowing. I think where a lot of the change happens is the translation of the knowledge systems and I really like the way that she paints the picture of our ways of knowing in the scientific context. She really shows what those cycles mean and how the equivalent of biologists and environmentalists exist within our communities.”

—Brett Huson, member of the Gitxsan Nation, the founder and president of Aluu’taa

Maria Shallard, director of Indigenous research for the Canadian Climate Institute, where Wale previously worked, says, “Janna demonstrated leadership in centring Indigenous ways of knowing and being in climate policy during her time at the institute… and took every opportunity to share her passion and the need to include Indigenous Knowledge in climate research.

“Janna's care is rooted in her ancestral connection to the land and waters, and is transparent to anyone that is around her,” Shallard says, adding, “Her work in climate has positioned her as a role model and leader, as she inspires those around her to take action.”

The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions welcomed Wale in September 2024. She supports the institute’s efforts to braid Indigenous Knowledges and science with Western forms of research.

Janna’s expertise, leadership, and cultural knowledge are integral to our work here at PICS to advance Indigenous climate leadership and priorities. Climate solutions that respect and seek to understand, support, and where appropriate weave both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems are highly effective and very innovative.”

—Ian Mauro, PICS Executive Director

A future in science for women and girls

Wale is conscious of that leadership position and the obligations that come with it. Additional responsibility comes with her role at PICS.

The goal, Wale says, “is that communities have more input and they also are able to participate in projects in the reciprocal way where the project will actually benefit the community.”

It’s a continuation of her own efforts both as a student and a professional.

“A lot of the work that I've been doing is just really talking about what our people have known for generations,” she says. “I think the way that I see myself almost is like a bit of a navigator, or somebody who works to bridge those things just because I have both experiences. And I think ultimately, I would like society to get to a place where I'm no longer needed—we can just accept that Indigenous Knowledges have value, Indigenous science has value.

Our people are scientists—the original scientists.”

—Janna Wale

She also understands her own value as a role model for women and girls, long under-represented in the STEM fields, who may be considering a career in the sciences.

“A lot of our communities are matrilineal , so our women were and are our leaders, they are our chiefs, they are the ones that are in charge,” she explains. “It's something that I’ve reflected on a lot, and I just hope to see more women and girls in this space—having the drive and the strength and the passion to chase what they want.”

And she has a message for them: “It’s not going to get easier but you're going to get stronger. It's going to be something that will be worth your time. It will be difficult. You're going to do a lot of learning, but you're going to be a better person for it and you're going to be in a better position to help your family, help your community and be able to really use your voice in the way that our ancestors did.”